|
Epidemics have always had a great influence on people -
and thus influencing, as well, the genealogists trying to trace them. Many
cases of people disappearing from records can be traced to dying during an
epidemic or moving away from the affected area. Some of the major
epidemics in the United Sates are listed below. |
|
1657 |
Boston: Measles |
|
1687 |
Boston: Measles |
|
1690 |
New York: Yellow Fever |
|
1713 |
Boston: Measles |
|
1729 |
Boston: Measles |
|
1732-33 |
Worldwide: Influenza |
|
1738 |
South Carolina: Smallpox |
|
1739-40 |
Boston: Measles |
|
1747 |
Conn., NY, PA & SC: Measles |
|
1759 |
North America (areas inhabited by whites) |
|
1761 |
North America & West Indies: Influenza |
|
1772 |
North America: Measles |
|
1775 |
North America (especially New England): Epidemic (unknown)
1775-76 Worldwide: Influenza (one of the worst flu epidemics) |
|
1788 |
Philadelphia and NY: Measles |
|
1793 |
Vermont: Influenza and a "putrid fever" |
|
1793 |
Virginia: Influenza (killed 500 people in 5 counties in 4
weeks). |
|
1793 |
Philadelphia: Yellow Fever (one of worst) 1783 Delaware
(Dover) "extremely fatal" bilious disorder 1793 Pennsylvania
(Harrisburg & Middletown) many unexplained deaths |
|
1794 |
Philadelphia: Yellow fever |
|
1796-97 |
Philadelphia: Yellow fever |
|
1798 |
Philadelphia: Yellow fever (one of worst) |
|
1803 |
New York: Yellow fever |
|
1820-23 |
Nationwide: "fever" (starts on Schuylkill River,
PA & spreads |
|
1831-32 |
Nationwide: |
|
Asiatic Cholera (brought by English emigrants) |
|
1832 |
New York & other major cities: Cholera |
|
1837 |
Philadelphia: Typhus |
|
1841 |
Nationwide: Yellow fever (especially severe in South) |
|
1847 |
New Orleans: Yellow fever |
|
1847-48 |
Worldwide: Influenza |
|
1848-49 |
North America: Cholera 1850 Nationwide: Yellow Fever |
|
1850-51 |
North America: Influenza 1852 Nationwide: Yellow fever
(New Orleans, 8,000 die in summer) |
|
1855 |
Nationwide: (many parts) Yellow fever |
|
1857-59 |
Worldwide: Influenza (one of disease's greatest epidemics) |
|
1860-61 |
Pennsylvania: Smallpox |
|
1865-73 |
Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore,
Memphis & Washington, DC: A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox,
Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet fever & Yellow fever |
|
1873-75 |
North America & Europe: Influenza |
|
1878 |
New Orleans: Yellow fever (last great epidemic of disease) |
|
1885 |
Plymouth, PA: Typhoid |
|
1886 |
Jacksonville, FL: Yellow fever |
|
1918 |
Worldwide: Influenza (high point year). More people
hospitalized in World War I for Influenza than wounds. US Army training
camps became death camps, with 80% death rate in some camps. |
|
Finally, these specific instances of cholera were
mentioned: |
|
1833 |
Columbus, OH |
|
1834 |
New York City |
|
1849 |
New York |
|
1851 |
Coles County, IL |
|
1851 |
The Great Plains |
|
1851 |
Missouri |
